Welcome to the very first episode of the Equalizer Series, part of the Unmentionables podcast. I'm your host, Evan, and this is the series where I will take time to break down big issues, sometimes controversial, but always crucial for us to wrestle with honestly. Before we get to the main topic of this first episode, I want to take some time to introduce myself and what you can expect from me. My name is Evan Quaich, and I'm here to put truth back on the scales in the Equalizer series. I co-host a weekly podcast, The Unmentionable, with my incredible wife and accountability partner, Melissa. On that show, we would discuss things we've been told not to talk about, with an emphasis on encouraging our listeners to talk about trauma, mental health, and to learn to be okay with not being okay while always striving to be aware and to recognize it in the people around us. I'm a former Marine who served in the Middle East during the Iraq War. I've been part of nationally focused political campaigns, helped build political movements, founded a history-based educational nonprofit, and run for political office myself. I've served on school boards, and I'm a father of three and a bonus dad to four more kids on the spectrum. Most of my work life has been spent in technology, and so I have an appreciation of things like AI, social media, and the digital domain, both in terms of practicality and the pace of change. I've seen success and I've seen failure. I've made mistakes and I've tasted victory. Like most people, I'm still learning when to hold them and when to fold them. I've been dealt a lot of hands, and I know how to get up when I get knocked down or trip over my own feet. I know what it feels like to feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and I know the feeling of the wind in your hair. In other words, I'm really not that much different from most of you out there. I just have a microphone and opinions to share. My personal worldview is probably best summed up by lines from a couple of country songs. God is great, beer is good, people are crazy. And I'm a little crazy, but the world is insane. I do my best to live with the following concepts in mind. God is real. Jesus died for our sins. It's best to lead with love always, but also speak truth without fear. What's this show about? On this show, I focus on faith, family, freedom, and first principle. I know the common narrative is that there should be a separation between faith and public policy. Somehow because our constitution protects us from a state religion, we must separate our morality and beliefs from all government and policy. I personally disagree with this assessment. I don't think politics and religion can be separated. I think they're inextricably linked because we should be advocating for the things that glorify God and merge with our principles. The truth is, if you assess the principles of every faith, almost without fail, the basic principles generally align. Fundamentalists and extremists will always venture outside of these shared principles and the applications across faiths won't always be the same, but those are really the extremes. And the answers are almost never in those margins. I believe the Bible is truth and that its wisdom is timeless. I often point to the key tenets of Christian faith and I ask where any other faith truly differs. Even if we really don't believe the exact same thing, if we live our basic lives by biblical principles daily, does it harm us? To do good to one another, to act out of love and with respect and decency, to put others first while ensuring our own safety and stability? Does that harm any of us? I don't think so. I elevate the family as the central unit. Each of us has a personal relationship with God and the Christian faith, and next to God, the family is the next most important thing. The Bible describes faith and the dynamic of the family. God the Father, Jesus the Son, the church as the bride, the congregants as God's children, non-believers as lost children. And I believe that our children are a blessing, even though they drive me batshit crazy at times. I also believe that being a parent is the most demanding and rewarding job on the planet. If you have the blessing to be a parent, crazy not to do everything you can to live for them. Also, we're not meant to do life alone. We need a partner in our lives, especially when there's kids involved. I believe very strongly in the Nuclear Family, and I encourage people to live life young, find a partner, marry them, have kids, and raise them together. I've been through divorce as a child and as an adult. I know what it feels like on both sides, and I know the challenges it creates. But I don't judge people who don't follow this blueprint. Life happens. But we do well by ourselves and others to try to look at this blueprint as an avenue to life. Freedom to me is old school liberty. I always lean toward the side of a topic that gives the most freedom to individuals. I'm skeptical of government, but acknowledge its necessity at some level. I deeply believe that federalism, as described in the Declaration of Independence in the Constitution, is the source of more positive growth in human history than any other system. Speaking of the Constitution, it is, in my opinion, with the Bill of Rights, the greatest political document and government charter in the history of the world. I believe that free market capitalism is the most fair and equitable economic system ever devised because it gives the individual the most power to control how the market works. I also believe the current system of state crony capitalism has eroded the effectiveness of the free market too much, and we should reverse much of the overreach that's happened in the last hundred years. Individual rights are the best barometer to morality and fairness as related to government systems and good government. Strong economies require moral and engaged citizens. Ordered liberty is important. There's got to be some law, as Sam Elliott said in Tombstone as Virgil ERP. But that law should be in place at the level closest to the people and only where it's absolutely necessary. Where cultures have shared agreement on principles, those rights should be enshrined and provided equally to all. I was raised to understand that there are simple, basic foundational truths that create fundamental building blocks upon which more complex ideas are constructed. I call these first principles. Here's a few examples. We talk about government first principles. Order is necessary for survival. Power must be legitimized, it must come from the consent of the government. Freedom and control exist in tension. Every government balances that individual liberty versus the collective security order. Justice requires rules, laws, and norms are necessary. Governments exist to serve shared human needs. On economics, resources are scarce. There's always going to be more wants than means to satisfy them. Humans act with incentives. Choices are driven by costs, benefits, and trade-offs, whether rational or not. Value is subjective. Goods and services have no absolute value. Worth depends on what individuals are willing to give up in exchange. Exchange creates wealth. Voluntary trade allows specialization, comparative advantage, and a greater overall prosperity. All systems must allocate resources. Societies have to decide who gets what, how, and why. And what gauges a society's morality makes it better than others is how they make those decisions, in my opinion. On science, the universe is knowable. Knowledge comes from observation. Explanation must be testable. Hypotheses have to be falsifiable and subject to experimentation. Doubt is essential. Skepticism, repeatability, willingness to discard ideas when evidence contradicts them isn't is critical. And models approximate reality, they don't define it. Science builds theories and they simplify and describe reality, but they are always provisional and they're open to refinement. Sometimes you have to change your opinion because the facts no longer support it. I also don't immediately accept the narratives that I'm provided, nor would I ask you to accept the narratives I provide to you. Do your own homework. Be curious and question boldly. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, Question boldly even the existence of God, because if there be one, you must more approve the homage of reason than that of blindholded fear. The pursuit of truth can only be found in skepticism, and if belief survives scrutiny, it's sturdier than unquestioned dogma. I believe that God wants us to know him, and in order to know him, you have to be curious and seek answers. Those answers may be self-evident, like the idea that all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, and some will be less obvious, requiring introspection or external truth seeking. Which means you have to ask questions. Why is one of the most beautiful words in the English language, and we should use it more often. This is why I'm drawn to the scientific method and problem solving in general. It's important that we seek truth, and that's why I'm here. Well, today we're gonna talk about speech. Not just words, but why speech is powerful, why it matters to God, how societies have tried to protect or suppress it, and why the founders put it first in the Bill of Rights. Here's the question I want you to keep in the back of your minds for today's episode. If speech is silenced, what else do we lose? Let's start where all speech begins, with God. In Genesis 1 3, creation begins with speech. God says, Let there be light, and light explodes into existence. Words create. In Genesis, the process of God's creation is detailed, and at every step God said or called, and in that act the universe came to life. Even man was created through God's speech, and as man was created in God's image, we too have the power to create with our words. Proverbs 1821 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Speech is never neutral. It can heal or it can destroy. And just as God gave us the power to create, he also gave us the power to destroy and to tear down. James reminded us that the tongue is small but mighty. Matthew takes it further, every careless word will be judged, he says in 12, 36, 37. That's how much weight words carry in heaven. And it's time to ask ourselves if the next words we utter are going to be judged well in heaven. And then there's the Tower of Babel. Humanity had one language, one speech, and it united them, but in pride against God. So God confused their speech, scattered them, and showed us that words can unify or divide nations. We see this daily from our political leaders who far too often choose the dividing words over the uniting ones. The prophets couldn't stay silent even when it cost them everything. Jeremiah says God's words burned in his heart. In Acts, Peter and John proclaim we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard. It's a powerful force, speech. And freedom itself, real freedom, is tied to speech. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Galatians tells us to stand firm in that freedom. So biblically, speech is a divine gift, but it comes with moral responsibility to tell the truth, to glorify God, and to build others up. Have you noticed the Bible never treats speech as optional? It's always powerful, always accountable. Now let's step out of scripture and look at history. Greece is recognized to have had the first democracy in the world, and Socrates is a key figure at that time. He questioned authority, traditions, and the very foundations of Athenian democracy. His charge at his trial, corrupting the youth and impiety. Far less about a specific crime and more about the perceived destabilization of social order through speech. That's the problem with speech, is it can be construed and taken in many different ways, and if it's not protected, it can be used against you very, very easily. There was a tension there, individual inquiry versus collective conformity. Even in a democracy, too much free questioning could be seen as a threat to stability in those times. The Greeks had the idea of Isigoria, equal right of speech in the assembly, and this meant that every citizen, well, as long as you were an adult male, not enslaved, not a woman, not a foreigner, had a chance to speak, so equality was bound by status. And they understood Parisia, bold, frank speech, valued but dangerous. It allowed truth telling and critique of leaders, yet it carried risk, and Socrates' fate showed that it wasn't always protected. So do we take away from Greece? Early democracy promoted speech as central, but it was both empowering and perilous. Speech rights existed, but their boundaries were socially policed. Moving ahead in time to Rome, Cicero connected libertas or freedom to speech. For Romans, freedom meant not living under tyranny, and one proved and defended liberty by speaking well in public life. Of course, only elites had this privilege. Speech was tied to status, citizenship, and rhetorical skill, much as it had been in Greece. Commoners had very limited avenues to engage. Roman free speech was bound to political fractionalism. Speak against the wrong power and you rest exile or death. Cicero learned that message. Speech was celebrated as essential to liberty, but liberty itself was stratified. It was hierarchical rather than universal. Jumping ahead in time again to 1215, we have the Magna Carta. Not as much about free speech, per se, but it was about limiting the king's authority. And that was important because it planted seeds of constitutionalism, it planted seeds of checks and balances with authority, and it shifted power from the crown to nobles. But of course, the idea of constraining rulers opened the door to later debates about liberty. It created an avenue for individual liberty to be recognized. Moving ahead again, we have Milton's Aropogetica, who was written against censorship of the press in England. And he argued, truth emerges through contest. So let her and falsehood grapple. Whoever knew truth put to the worst in a free and open encounter? Very simply, let truth and falsehood debate. And almost never you're going to find out that truth wins. In fact, never. Truth always wins. He placed freedom of expression at the heart of intellectual and moral progress. Still not absolute, Milton accepted limits on blasphemy and libel and sedition, but a huge step toward freedom of speech and freedom of expression. By this period, freedom of expression was shifting from the privilege of elites to a principle of political legitimacy, but it was constantly negotiated against authorities' need for order. So in early history, we have an arc of freedom of speech as a civic participation, very fragile. Moving forward, it became tied to status and rhetorical power. By the Middle Ages, we started to see some checks and balances on power, more freedom of speech, and in the early modern era, speech was defended as essential for truth seeking, still carried some conditions. So this shows how speech evolved from a civic tool to a status marker to a check on power to further a moral necessity for truth. By the Enlightenment, John Locke had tied freedom of thought and expression to natural rights. Voltaire, whether he actually said it or not, was linked with the famous idea, I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Then in America's founding era, these threads come together. The First Amendment wasn't written in a vacuum. It's the First Amendment. It was born out of persecution, censorship, and a recognition that liberty lives or dies by what we can say. Let's break down the First Amendment because its structure is brilliant. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Notice the order here. Religion, then speech, then press, then assembly, then petition. Religion comes first. Free will central to faith. The government has no right to force allegiance to a state church, nor does it have the right to suppress churches that don't align in state values. Speech in the press follow because faith and conscience can't be protected unless you can declare and defend them. In the 1700s, press really meant pamphlets, books, newspapers, even Bible. It was strongly related to the physical printing press, the means by which words made it to paper. Now, of course, we have digital press. Same concept, same idea. The right of the people peaceably to assemble. The peaceably part is extremely important for those of you who are out in Portland, other places. That protects the right to worship together and to protest. See, the British tried tried to control both. A crucial component of religious freedom is the ability to worship. The British government had restricted the right of congregations to meet unless approved by them. Keep in mind that most meetings, quote unquote meetings of that time, occurred in the context of a congregational church setting. In other words, you would go to church and you would get some God and you get some politics. You get some, you know, social time. So in this clause, the founders protected the right to meet for worship and for the right to protest. Petition, that right's in there. Why is that there? Well, that mirrors what God Himself allows. God asks his people to bring grievances before him through prayer. And if we can appeal to God, surely we must be able to appeal to human governments. Moses, Aaron, Nathan, Queen Esther, Daniel, Paul, many others are documented biblically to call out to government leaders to seek justice and resolve grievances even at God's command. God wanted them to seek redress with the other humans before he would act on their behalf. Here's the key. Free speech means the government cannot censor you. It doesn't mean you're free from consequences. See, remember, Jesus told us every careless word will be judged. But the government doesn't have the right to silence you. That's what the First Amendment is telling you. And that's the important part here. That's why this amendment is the bedrock. If speech goes, religion, assembly, petition, all of it goes with it. Let's tie it all together. In the Bible, we learn that speech is divine, powerful, accountable, it creates and destroys, unites and divides. In history, we see speech is civic. It's necessary for truth and for democracy to flourish. In law, we see speech as fundamental, it's the first protection of our liberties. Speech is not just a right, it's a stewardship. Much as God gave us the planet as stewards, to look over it, to care for it, to treat it well, to use it for maintaining us, but also to care for it. Through speech, God creates and communicates. Through God's word, we know that we are created in his image, and that gives our words the power to create and destroy. And the founders, influenced by both faith and philosophy, knew that well. So here's where we land. Speech is the oxygen of freedom. Without it, nothing else can survive. And yet, speech is not just about what we can say, it's about what we should say. Voltaire supposedly said at best, I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to your to the death your right to say it. Or biblical terms, by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Next time we're going to look at modern threats to free speech, campus protests, cancel culture, YouTube's free censorship under government pressure. And yeah, we'll even talk about late night television, Jimmy Kimmel, and all of that. So stay tuned for that. Until then, remember this if we lose our speech, we lose our freedom. Use it wisely, use it boldly, and never let it be taken away. Before you go, let me leave you with this. If today's episode gave you something to think about, there's more where that came from. Subscribers get access to exclusive content like with the equalizer series, Deep Dives you just heard, plus other behind the scenes conversations we can't always put in the public feed. It's our way of giving you more substance, more context, and more truth without compromise. So hit that subscribe button, join the community, and make sure you don't miss what's next. Because here on the equalizer, truth isn't optional, it's essential.